


Laphicet's Christmas Debacle

by Zimithrus1



Category: Tales of Berseria
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Cute, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Found Family, Gen, Holidays, Phi is just a curious lad, trying to explain christmas/santa is harder than I thought it'd be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:00:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28247313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zimithrus1/pseuds/Zimithrus1
Summary: Laphicet's curious as to why shops are full of decorated trees and colorfully-wrapped boxes, why people are singing hymns like they used to in the Abbey, and what exactly is Christmas and Santa? Thankfully within his ragtag group of friends, there are some willing to explain.Technically, this just might be his first Christmas.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Laphicet's Christmas Debacle

**Author's Note:**

> My first Berseria fic! 🎉 Not what I originally had in mind for a first fic, but once I had the idea I had to write it! I've been muddling over about typing up a Berseria fic ever since the game came out - finally figured how to do something at least! I hope you all find it enjoyable 😊💚

The first thing Laphicet notices the moment they step into town is how colorful it is.

Even though it’s the dead of winter and the ground and all of the houses are covered with a fresh blanket of snow, bright, multi-colored lights burn warm all around. They hang off strings draped across the roofs of the cottages, entwining around lampposts like coiled serpents, and blink and wink like many of Magilou’s playful expressions, rainbows blinking across the awed glaze in his eyes.

Trees adorned in glittery ornaments topped with oversized stars glimmer in the shop windows, all kinds of colorful tin garland reflecting those lights just like his eyes. Even as they walk past those colorful trees and the shops they live in, his gaze still lingers.

People line the front of a church donned in scarves and earmuffs and thick, woolly coats and they sing. They sing like the Abbey choir used to; operatic, light, bright hymns sectioned off by different vocal ranges. Other people watch quietly, others barely bob their heads to the familiar hymns, and some completely ignore them altogether.

He gently spins on his heel as he walks, going forward but eager eyes taking in every sight they possibly can. And even though he’s ventured to plenty of towns before, this one feels so different. It’s so full of color and life and bright, cheery faces, (even amongst the deamonblight).

Though as they pass another shop window, his eyes can’t help but stare at colorfully wrapped boxes sparkling and glimmering, enticing him to come close.

Even though he knows better then to break away from the others, he can’t stop the pretty pull from tugging him out of formation and over to the window, where he lays his hands against the glass when he arrives.

His own reflection greets his eyes even though he stares at the colorful boxes with shiny paper, big fluffy bows, and springy rainbow ribbons. His breath fogs up the glass a little when he quietly exhales.

“Phi.” A distant voice beckons.

He breaks his eyes away from the glass and glances to his left where the form of Velvet stands with a hand on her hip and a cold, tired expression on her face. (Her usual look.)

But the call of his name is all he needs to hear to know he needs to move. So with a slightly furrowed brow, he pulls himself away from the colorful boxes with slow, longing steps, dragging his feet the entire way back to her side.

“What caught your eye, Laphicet?” A different voice asks.

He turns his olive eyes away from Velvet and over to the most normal looking of their group; the former Abbey exorcist he’s tethered to－Eleanor. She has a soft, patient smile on her face that gently lights her honeydew eyes.

“The boxes in the window mostly.” He honestly responds.

“The boxes?” Eleanor lifts her head and stretches her gaze. Her eyes light up and her cheeks go rosy. “Oh, you mean the presents?”

He cocks his head. “Presents?”

“Yes, presents.” She nods and her smile stretches. “It’s tradition for most folks around this time of year to wrap presents and leave them under trees.” Her index finger raises in the air and her head slightly tilts to the right.

“But why would they do that?”

“Well, that’s what people usually do to celebrate Christmas.” Her finger goes to gently touch her chin as she seems to ponder something. “Do you not know what Christmas is?”

He shakes his head.

 _“What?? How can you_ not _know what Christmas is?!”_ An energetic, shrill voice cries.

A blur of pink and purple jumps to life from the sidelines, rushing in and practically nudging Elanor out of the way. Then there’s a slender face inches away from his own and bright chartreuse eyes gleam wildly.

“Boys your age practically can’t shut up about Christmas! Always going on about ‘ _ooh, I want thiiis~’,_ and ‘ _I want thaaat~’_ , and _‘Mommy d’y’think Santa will give me coal again this year’?”_ Her hands wildly form gestures and signals as she energetically gasps. Then her hands shoot to her hips and her eyebrows quirk. “Seriously, how do you _not_ know? Y’think my lovely assistant would have told you about that!”

Velvet’s eyes turned to sharp daggers and stabbed through the back of Magilou. “I’m _not_ your assistant.”

“ _Coo, coo,_ she cries~” Magilou waves her off flippantly and rolls her eyes.

“I don’t really get the appeal of Christmas.” A slightly scratchy voice hums.

Laphicet turns his eyes to whom he knew the voice belonged to, glancing upon the form of the war daemon Rokurou with his visible sunset eye glancing off to the side and a hand to his chin.

“Of _course_ you don’t get the appeal! All you care about are swords!” Magilou groans and even her hat seems to fall as flat as her tone.

“The blade is fine and true, and a powerful tool you can freely wield in your hands.” Rokurou makes a fist. “Much better than a children’s tradition if you ask me.”

“My point _exactly._ ”

“So… is this Santa a… person? What do they have to do with Christmas?” Laphicet’s voice wavers a little. (He’s a little confused, but he’d like to know all he can about this ‘Christmas’ thing.)

Eleanor steps up (after walking past Magilou who had shifted her attention to banter with Rokurou), and clasped a strong, kind hand to his shoulder and reclaimed her earlier smile. “Well, Santa’s the one that delivers all of those pretty looking presents to good boys and girls on Christmas Eve night.”

“Then why are there presents in the shop windows? It’s not night time yet.”

Eleanor’s winks. “Well, I think that’s just the adults trying to copy Santa’s magic.”

“Do we _have_ to talk about this here?” Velvet’s cold, velvety voice huffs faintly. “If you’re going to keep up this pointless banner I’d prefer to do it at the inn.”

It’s all the group needs to hear to get moving again.

“We’ll finish this talk later, okay?” Eleanor promises before she releases Laphicet’s shoulder.

He nods in response before running ahead to rejoin his spot by Velvet’s side.

* * *

“Got any rooms available?”

Velvet stands in front of the receptionist desk her her weight shifted to her right and her hands on her hips.

The innkeeper’s eyes light. “You’re in luck－we have two available right now due to last minute cancellations. It’s hard to find anywhere open on Christmas Eve you know.”

Laphicet stands next to her obediently, though his curious eyes can’t stop from looking around as they always do.

The inside of the inn looks just as bright and cheery as the outside of the village. They’ve also got lights strewn about the walls and pretty wintery decorations adorn the tables and the mantle of the lit fireplace not too far away. And there’s even a brightly colored, heavily decorated tree with wrapped presents underneath it in here too, just like earlier in the shop.

So the adults here must also be trying to copy this ‘Santa’ magic as well. It made him wonder who or what this ‘Santa’ really was. He breaks his olive eyes away from the winking lights and towards Eleanor, who stands a little ways behind him. It seems as though she’s discussing something with Eizen－the reaper pirate Malak with a perchance for bad luck.

He wants to approach them and ask his question, but he doesn’t want to interrupt. Or be chided for breaking away from Velvet’s side again. _(She was oddly protective over him through her stand-offish disdain.)_

But it seems as though she senses his curiosity, because her eyes break away from her conversation with Eizen and they lock on his. “Laphicet, can you come over here for a moment?” She beckons.

Well, he wasn’t breaking away of his own accord, so Velvet couldn’t get annoyed with him for walking off. So he did. He peeled away from her side and scurried over to where they stood nearby the decorated tree.

“So,” Eizen speaks up as he crosses his arms over his chest. “Eleanor tells me you don’t know what Christmas or Santa is.”

He shakes his head, feeling as though if he says no out loud then he might be secretly judged for his lack of knowledge.

“You’re in luck－thanks to my little sister I happen to be an expert on the subject.” A smirk of pride pulls at the corners of his lips.

“Me too!” Eleanor chimed with a smile of her own. “I may have been an only child, but I celebrated Christmas with my parents every year.” An index finger goes up.

Laphicet’s eyes of olive light up and catch the winking decorations in them. “You do?” He inhales.

“Yup! And now that we’re here at the inn, we can answer any questions you might have!” She smiles brighter.

“Okay,” He says before he cocks his head to the right. “So who or what is Santa?”

“Santa’s quite the rotund man,” Eizen takes the floor as he uncrosses one arm from his chest and gestures to nothing. “But he’s kind and jolly and full of bright magic and only shows himself to children, for his magic is the most effective on them.”

“So, is he a kind of Malak?”

“Nope,” Eleanor shakes her head. “He’s a lot like Magilou－unexplainable.”

Laphicet turns his head just in time to see aforementioned Magilou trying to swindle money out of a couple with quick parlor tricks. _Makes sense though._

“So why does Santa use his magic to give presents to boys and girls on Christmas? That has to be draining on his mana.”

“His magic is limitless.” Eizen takes the floor again. “And he does it to reward them for good behavior, for being kind and generous all year long.”

He doesn’t understand _why_ though. Why would he waste his time to reward children for acting good? And why only once a year? And what about the bad children? Did _they_ get rewarded?

“What about boys and girls that _aren’t_ good?” He finds himself asking. Out of all the questions he has, that one slips out first.

“Well, they don’t get anything, or they get coal if they were _really_ bad.” Eleanor places her hands on her hips and nods surely.

So, if he was understanding this correctly, Santa used his magic to deliver presents to boys and girls on Christmas Eve night so that they’d be rewarded for good behavior on Christmas itself every year on the date. And all the fake presents and decorations were brought about by adults that couldn’t see Santa trying to cash in on his unexplainable magic, or just trying to set the tone for the children. And also bad children didn’t get anything or they got coal.

Okay, he supposed that made sense.

But at the same time. _He_ never got rewarded for good behavior, or had any presents given to him on Christmas. Maybe Santa doesn’t give presents to Malaks? No that can’t be it. Eizen said thanks to his little sister he knew all about this. So if that’s the case then his little sister must get presents from him.

So… was he just not good enough?

“Are you _still_ filling his head with that Christmas Spirit drivel?” The monotonous voice of Velvet sighs.

She makes her way toward them with loud, metallic steps from the iron on her boots and her bright yellow eyes look bored and annoyed at the same time. She rights her weight again and settles her hand to her hip, (her usual stance when annoyed or bored, he’s come to learn).

“Velvet!” Eleanor complains with slightly furrowed rose brows. “He’s still young and doesn’t know about all of the fun holidays for boys his age!”

_Actually he doesn’t even know how old he is himself._

“Let him have some fun, it’s almost Christmas. Surely you used to celebrate it once upon a time?” Eizen gestures.

Velvet scoffs and turns her head to the side. She seems annoyed by that question, but he can tell it kind of hurts her.

“Yeah, once upon a time is right.” She huffs and finds her bitter attitude again. “When Artorius didn’t make me into what I am now.” She clenches her left arm covered in bandages.

“Velvet, did _you_ believe in Santa?” Laphicet can’t stop himself from asking her. He turns around from Eizen and Eleanor to face her fully with his big, bright eyes.

“Me personally－never.” She growls. But when her tone makes him wince slightly, she sighs heavily and eases some of the bite from her voice. “But Laphi did.”

Laphi. Yes, Velvet’s little brother, whom he was named after.

She tears her eyes away from them and out of the window where snow is falling now. “Every year on Christmas Eve night he’d beg me to let him stay up late to see if he could actually see Santa.” Her tone is soft and cold, distant even. “But ‘Santa’ doesn’t visit poor village kids.” Her bite returns. “Did you tell him that?” Her yellow eyes pierce through them.

They squirm a little. Well, Eleanor squirms and hums a sharp note, Eizen just looks away uncomfortably and clears his throat.

Santa… doesn’t visit poor kids? That… seems really sad. Why doesn’t he? Wasn’t Santa supposed to be kind and jolly and giving? That seems a little backwards for him to forget poor village kids, even if they _were_ good. _And_ he didn’t leave anything for bad kids, (or worse, would leave them coal!)

He must’ve been poor or bad himself, because he never got anything either.

He can’t stop himself from reaching out and tugging on Velvet’s tattered cloak to get her attention. When she turns her piercing yellow eyes to him, he asks, “Am I bad?”

The sharpness in her eyes instantly fades and something wobbly and round replaces the point.

“Santa’s never brought me anything before. So… I must be bad. Or poor. Or maybe I’m both… Right?” He cocks his head slightly. “Madam Teresa always did punish me a lot.”

It seems as though Velvet doesn’t know what to say all of a sudden. She just continues to look at him with that watery roundness in her eyes and it’s quite hard to tell what she’s thinking now.

“Great.” She growls as she sharpens the roundness out of her eyes with sparks. She raises up those pointed yellows towards the Reaper and the former Abbey exorcist. “He finally gets some damn emotions after being a tool for so long and now we’re going to fill him with _this_?” She huffs.

“We were just trying to give him something nice to think about.” Eleanor weakly defends and her honeydew eyes find solace in staring at the rug below her boots.

Velvet turns her eyes toward him. “Believe in whatever you want, but don’t let that drivel make you think poorly about yourself.”

Laphicet doesn’t really know what to think now. So he just says, “Okay.”

* * *

Dusk settles down over the horizon like a thick woolen blanket, the bright oranges and yellows giving just a bit more warmth before the cold of night would come approaching.

Laphicet sits on one of the inn beds and watches the sun set out of the snow-dusted window, mind still heavy from all he heard today.

Santa, Christmas, good, bad, poor, fake. He kind of wished he never asked about it, because now he doesn’t know if it’s really true or not and it’s giving him a headache.

Eleanor and Eizen seem like they believe－Magilou maybe, but it’s hard to tell with her－but Velvet and Rokurou don’t seem like they believe.

Perhaps Christmas is just another day and it’s what adults say to children to make them feel happy and excited. Or maybe it is all real and full of magic. It seems like the answer isn’t so cut and dry; it changes depending on who he asks.

Rokurou said it was a children’s tradition, like a story or fable. Velvet said Santa never visited poor village kids even though her little brother believed. Eleanor and Eizen seemed to know all about it, but were quick to drop the matter when a different viewpoint challenged them. And Magilou－well, she’s just Magilou; she believes in whatever’s more convenient for her.

His head is going in circles and he doesn’t want to think about it anymore.

But gentle, hushed clamor from the hallway catches his attention and makes him glance over his shoulder. First he sees Eleanor cautiously tiptoe past the open door, followed by Magilou spinning about behind her, being her usual self. Eizen follows next with his hands stuffed in his pockets, then Rokurou calls “Hey where are we going exactly?” As he walks by with his hands tucked behind his head.

“Rokurou keep your voice down! This is a stealth mission!” Eleanor huffs just as Velvet walks by.

Though she’s the only one that stops and peaks into the room he sits in by himself. “Stay here.” She tells him. “There’s some business we need to take care of at the pub, and this one doesn’t allow kids.”

“Yes Velvet.” He responds with more of a sad tone than he thought he’d have.

His tone makes her linger by the door, but only for a moment. She simply nods and pulls away from the door, soon disappearing with the others.

Laphicet rights his head to staring back out the window again, watching the snow sprinkle down like powdered sugar. He wonders what business they needed to take care of at the pub－he didn’t think they even saw the pub on their way in to this town.

Within moments of thinking that, he sees the group exit the mouth of the inn before coming to a stop a few feet away. It looks like Eizen’s saying something; he’s doing that thing where he gestures to nothing with one of his hands. Rokurou puts a hand to his chin and it looks like he says something back. It’s hard to tell, he can’t hear anything－he can only see their mouths moving.

Magilou makes her usual grand gestures and from the looks of it starts imitating the posture of both Eizen and Rokurou. Then the back of Velvet’s head moves about and so does one of her hands. She has her back facing the inn, so he can’t see that she’s talking, but he knows she is. Eleanor’s face contorts into surprise at whatever it is Velvet said and Eizen smirks.

It’s soon after that they peel away from the mouth of the inn and head back the direction they came when they first got here.

How peculiar. They had only passed by a church, a few homes, and maybe a shop or two on the way here. If there was a pub here, they would have already seen it. So why are they heading back to the entrance of town?

Laphicet hums a flat, groggy key and his eyes droop. So many questions, not enough answers. It all just makes his head hurt worse. So, he simply falls over to his side as his head flops against the pillow of the bed, not even bothering to right his posture or to get any more comfortable.

He just closes his eyes and decides to go to bed early.

* * *

The first thing he notices when he comes to and opens his tired eyes is that he’s properly laying on the bed and the covers are drawn up to his neck.

He raises his arms up and balls his hands into fists, rubbing them across his eyes to wipe the heavy sleep from them. He wonders if he managed to wiggle under the covers and right his posture himself, but he didn’t think he was _that_ dexterous in his sleep.

He pushes himself up and quietly yawns, turning his head to the left to see if the others were awake yet.

But no one else is in the room. Not Eizen and not Rokurou. Did- did they ever come back last night? They didn’t leave him did they? Did he ask too many questions? Did he upset them for asking about Christmas and Santa??

He tosses the blankets from his body and practically shoots out of bed. If they’ve left then he’s got to catch up! He dashes across the floor and instantly grabs onto the handle the moment he reaches the door. With a bit more force than he’s used to, he swings the door wide open and makes a break for－

_Smack!_

Laphicet staggers back with his head swimming with stars, balance already wobbly from the force of collision. But what had he－

“Woah, where you rushin’ off too in such a hurry?” The playful, scratchy voice of Rokurou laughs.

He shakes the stars from his head and looks up quickly, _almost quickly enough to make himself dizzy again_ , as his eyes catch with the war daemons’.

“Wait, you didn’t leave me?”

“What- leave you? Are you kidding? If we left you Velvet would bite our heads off!” He laughs louder. “Actually, now that you’re up, come with me.” He waves with his right hand.

Laphicet forcefully swallows the urge to ask why as he bounds behind him. He’d surely find out if he just followed. So, he follows Rokurou down the hall, round a corner, and down another hall until they step into the inn lobby.

Everyone’s there. They’re sitting in the lobby on the chairs and couches by the fireplace still lit from last night talking amongst themselves.

“Found him!” Rokurou calls with a smirk, announcing their arrival. “Well, more like he woke up already.” He grins.

“Well it’s about time!” Magilou instantly responds as she bounds up from her spot with the speed of lightning.

She rushes forward while the others seem to lean in and talk quietly. But before Laphicet can even see what they’re doing, the rambunctious witch is already inches away from his face.

“Alright you, listen up and listen good!” She points at him, poking his chest with her index finger. “I don’t want any funny business, no dumb questions, and absolutely _no_ backtalk!” She gestures wildly with her hands and even spins around. “I’m only going to tell you this once, got it?” She winks.

Laphicet bites his tongue and nods quickly.

“Close- your- eyes-!” She chants.

Wait. Close his eyes? But why－

“I said close em!” She energetically repeats when she takes his stunned silence for ill-mannered selective hearing.

He instantly scrunches his eyes shut tight, feeling his eyelids strain and his nose crinkle from the action. Even his brow furrows and pulls down hard.

“Now~” She drawls playfully. “Hold out those little hands like someone’s handing you a steaming plate of Mabo curry~!”

His mouth waters at the mention of his favorite food ever, but he does as he’s told and he holds out his hands with his palms up.

“Okay, when I count to three, you can open them, capeesh?”

He nods rapidly, though he does hear the sounds of fabric shifting and steps being taken. Are they getting up from their seats? Are they coming towards him now? What is it that everyone’s doing and why are they acting so secretive? Oh, he hopes all this thinking won’t make his headache come back!

“Okay, oneee… twooo…. twoooo and a haaaaalf…. two and three quarterrrrs… two and seven eeeeigthss~…”

He feels something placed into his hands. It’s wrapped up because the texture feels like soft paper. But it’s kind of long and cylindrical too. He’s not sure what it is.

“Two and fifteen sixteenths~…”

“Magilou.” The voice of Eleanor deadpans.

“Alright, fine! Three! Open em up kid!”

He peels open his eyes and relaxes his facial muscles before glancing down at the thing placed into his hands. It’s long and cylindrical just like he surmised, and it’s wrapped in strange blue paper that shimmers and there’s a golden, sparkly bow hastily taped to the top.

“Merry Christmas, Laphicet!”  
“Merry Christmas, kid.”  
“We could’ve told him about other holidays but sure, happy Christmas or something!”  
“Figured you’d like this!”  
“Hmph…”

Everyone rings out in their respective tidings and all of the expressions on their faces look so warm. Even Velvet’s usually cold face seems lukewarm.

Wait, was this… a Christmas present?

“Well what are you waiting for kid, a green stamp? ( _They don’t make those anymore)_ , so open it up!!” Magilou exclaims.

Hesitantly, Laphicet takes one hand from the bottom of the wrapped gift and pinches a loose part of the paper. He looks back at his ragtag group that saved him from the cold, monotonous clutches of the Abbey and he inhales softly.

“Santa or not, believing or not, we all decided to pitch in and get you something.” Eleanor says with a warm smile.

“Y’know, since you seemed kinda bummed near the end of the day yesterday.” Eizen adds on with a nod.

“Well?” Velvet gestures to the wrapped gift. “You going to open it or not?” She’s got a ‘get on with it already’ tone to her voice. (But he doesn’t mind.)

With a shaky hand and strangely watery eyes, he carefully tears at the shimmering paper until he frees the object inside.

Those watery olive eyes widen and water even more so when the sight of a brown and gold telescope bleeds through. It looks as though it’s the perfect size for him, and it even adjusts near the eyepiece.

“Now you’ve got a compass _and_ a telescope.” Eizen smirks wide. “You’ll really be a great navigator now.”

His voice cracks and he whimpers softly, the water in his eyes spilling over quickly.

He’s just… so grateful. He didn’t know if it really was Santa’s magic or just his ragtag group that he thought of as family being nice, but he couldn’t be more grateful.

“Thank you… everyone!” He sniffles happily.

Everyone looks so proud and warm as they welcome his thanks and Velvet even musters up quite the kind smile for him.

Maybe it isn’t about the traditions, or the atmosphere, or the talk of men and magic or anything else…

Perhaps Santa’s magic is just those who care.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope I did everything justice! I've never written these characters before, but fingers crossed it turned out alright! 🤞 I hope you enjoyed the fluffy cuteness, and who knows, maybe I'll figure out how to write for this game that isn't holiday related! 😉
> 
> Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays~ I hope that you're able to enjoy these times as hectic as they may be. 💗
> 
> Thanks for reading! 📚💚😊


End file.
